Four days ago, State Senator Kevin Parker introduced Senate Bill S6584 which asks the energy authority of New York “to conduct a study on powering cryptocurrency mining facilities with renewable energy.”
The bill mentions that “cryptocurrency mining centers are an expanding industry in the State of New York,” which some don’t support, as a result of the high levels of energy used for proof-of-work blockchains such as Bitcoin to which we also add the carbon footprint of the network.
This is why, a week ago, Parker introduced companion legislation that asked for placing moratoriums on crypto mines in New York until the exact impact they have on the environment can be properly examined. The bill is now awaiting review by the Environmental Conservation Committee; S6584 is pending review by the Energy and Telecommunications Committee.
For a long time, China has been the region with the most significant number of crypto miners, but it seems that that won’t be the case for long, as several other regions on the globe, including in the USA, have big plans about that.